Lambert installing hand pumps in a remote area of Haiti
Dlo se lavi. Maji ni uhai. Water is life. In Africa, they often say, water is life. From South Africa to America, my passion and purpose in life is to help bring clean and safe water to those who do not have access. This is my story.
My name is Lara Lambert. I was born in a small suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. At the age of 6 – two years before Apartheid officially ended and Nelson Mandela became president – my family moved to a small town, called Mthatha. Mthatha is in the Eastern part of South Africa and close to the Indian ocean. This is also the home of beloved Nelson Mandela. At the age of 6, I had no idea how the vision of this man would later shape my life.
My mom and dad, who are both natives of Zimbabwe, were raised in foster homes during their high school years. My dad left home at 16 years old and joined the army. He was a Selous Scout and fought in the Rhodesian War. My parents were first generation Christians in our family and raised us as such.
America overwhelmed me – people were generous and kind and hospitable. My life was shaped and molded over those next four years. I was constantly amazed at how lucky I was to be given this opportunity to get an education. My brother and I were first generation college students in our family.
I realized later that I never would’ve gotten to that point without the help and support from so many people. I decided that I had the obligation to do the same – provide hope and opportunities for other people in this world.
There is a quote that I often share when I think about my story, “I am because we are.” It’s this sentiment that we are defined by our compassion and kindness toward others – an idea shared by Nelson Mandela, from the Xhosa word, Ubuntu.
Lambert in Malawi, a landlocked country in southeastern Africa that is split by the Great Rift Valley and Lake Malawi.
For the next six years, I dedicated my time doing humanitarian projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and later, Haiti. We worked in areas with major food insecurity and lack of clean drinking water. Growing up in South Africa, I often saw firsthand what it was like to not have access to water, and soon found my purpose. In 2016, I was working with an organization in Haiti doing clean water projects. We drilled wells and installed hand pumps in very remote areas that were often hard to access. We spent our days working alongside communities and installing hand pumps in fragile areas. There is nothing like seeing a community experience gaining access to clean, fresh water for the first time – it stays with you and makes the long hot days in the sun even more worthwhile.
This is when I met Design Outreach. Co-founded in Columbus, Design Outreach is a Christian humanitarian engineering non-profit dedicated to creating life-sustaining solutions that alleviate global poverty. Their flagship product, LifePump, is a new innovative hand pump that can reach deeper and last longer than standard hand pumps. You see, installing hand pumps every day and then having them break down after six months is devastating for a community.
Technology that breaks down also breaks trust between the organization and the people being served. LifePump is engineered to reach a depth of up to 500 feet and not break down, providing water for people every day of the year. For many years!
At Design Outreach, I now have the privilege of overseeing all of our field work in Haiti. I work closely with local governments, non-profits, and missionaries in Haiti to help identify problems to be solved. Our goal is to have 50 LifePumps installed by the end of 2019, bringing reliable water to almost 20,000 people. But we won’t stop there. In addition to LifePump, our engineers are already working on future innovations.
I feel honored to be a part of this work and to know that we’re making a difference, thanks to the generosity, compassion, and kindness shown from so many people here in America. When we look around us and see a world full of suffering and pain, we often feel as if our small contributions are not nearly enough to make a dent in the world’s problems. But each small contribution – combined with all the others – is enough to truly change the world.
Lara Lambert is a New Albany resident. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
